See and manage your rentals

If your community rents out land or homes with CasperLet, Civitas keeps track of them. Rentals is under Second Life in the side navigation.

How Civitas hears about your units

CasperLet only talks to scripts in SL, so each region with rental units needs the Civitas Rental Connector:

1. Go to In-world objects and press Send me the script on the Rental Connector card. One of Civitas's bots offers it to you in SL.
2. Log in to SL as the avatar who owns your CasperLet units, or have them ask for the script. CasperLet only answers scripts its owner owns, and the Rental Connector only listens to units its owner owns.
3. Put the script in an object in each region with units. The object can be small and hidden anywhere in the region, and while the script is working it shows no hover text.

The script listens to the units in its region and tells Civitas whenever something changes: someone rents a unit, renews it or leaves, the price changes, a tenant adds someone, or a tenant goes over their prim limit. Every 15 minutes it also checks for units taken out of the region. A new unit shows up the first time it says something, such as when someone rents it or it's reset.

The first time the script hears from a unit, Civitas only notes it and who's renting it, so putting the script out doesn't count your current tenants as new rentals. From then on, every rental and renewal counts.

You only need one Rental Connector in each region. While Rentals is off or paused, the script keeps nothing, says so in its hover text, and checks again every hour.

If your units don't show up, touch the object with the Rental Connector. It tells you in local chat (only you) whether it's connected, how many units it has heard, what's waiting to be sent, how its last report went and how much memory it has left. If it ever runs low on memory, it tells you once and sends what your units say one at a time.

Let Civitas read your CasperLet payments

The Rental Connector hears what your units say in SL, but not the payments, the Rental Log or how many prims each tenant has out. Civitas reads those through CasperLet once you add CMTY Resident as a manager:

1. In CasperLet, add CMTY Resident as a manager on the account that owns your units.
2. Tick only Can view Transactions, Can view Units page, Can view Unit Config and Can view Rental Log.

Civitas only reads, and never changes anything in CasperLet. It reads every 4 hours, and only the records of the avatars who own your Rental Connectors, in the regions where you have one, so another community's rentals never show in yours.

The CasperLet panel on the Rentals page says Connected to CasperLet once it can read everything, or what's missing: who hasn't added CMTY Resident yet, or which permission to tick. It also says when Civitas last read CasperLet. Press Check now to have it read straight away.

Once connected, the Units list and the map show how many prims each tenant has out beside what their unit allows, and Civitas keeps each payment, refund and Rental Log line it reads. The page then lists them under Rent paid and Activity, and works out your income from them.

What the page shows

• Along the top: how many units you have, how many are rented and vacant, how many tenants have less than 3 days left, and how many are over their prim limit.
• Map: your regions with units on SL's map, each with how many of its units are rented under its name. Each unit is drawn on the parcel its rental box stands on, colored by its state: white when vacant, green when rented, yellow when it runs out soon, red when it's overdue and orange when its tenant is over the prim limit. Parcels in those regions with no rental unit on them are plain outlines when you zoom in. The key to the colors is at the bottom right of the map. When the region has no Region Monitor to read its parcels, or several units share a parcel, the unit is a small square around its box instead. Click a unit to see its tenant, when it runs out, its price and prims, and Teleport to its box. The parcels on the Estates map show their units on their cards too. Choosing a region at the top of the page shows only that region's units.
• On your public page: turn on Show vacant rentals on the Public page to list the units anyone can rent now, with their price and a map. See Set up your public page.
• Income: what your units took this week and this month, with last week's and last month's beside them, and what's due to renew in the next 7 days. Once Civitas reads your payments through CasperLet, it adds up the payments CasperLet took, less refunds, from the first payment it read. Before then, and until you connect, it works this out from each rental and renewal the Rental Connector heard, at the unit's price per week. It's what CasperLet collected, not money paid out by Civitas. Weeks start on Sunday and months on the 1st, in SLT.
• Prims: how many prims your units allow their tenants, as CasperLet reports it, how many they have out once Civitas reads CasperLet, and how many units have a tenant over their limit, with those units listed first.
• CasperLet: whether Civitas can read your CasperLet payments, and when it last did. See above.
• Occupancy: how many units were rented at the end of each of the last 12 weeks, with tenants moving in above the line and moving out below it. Beside it are how full your units were on average, how many tenants moved in and out, and how long tenants stayed on average, counting the tenancies that ended in those weeks. Tenants who were already there when the Rental Connector first heard from a unit aren't in the average, since Civitas doesn't know when they moved in. Renewal rate is how many tenants renew: of the tenancies that came up for renewal in those weeks, the share whose tenant paid for more time and is still there. Each tenancy counts once, however often its tenant paid. A tenancy counts as not renewed when its unit went vacant in those weeks: the time ran out, the tenant left, or someone evicted them in SL. Tenants you evicted from this page, units taken out of their region, and tenancies that neither renewed nor ended in those weeks aren't counted, unless the tenant renewed first.
• Income by week: what your units took each of the last 12 weeks, with the average for a full week, the best week and the average rent a unit.
• Regions: with units in more than one region, each region's units, how many are rented and what share that is, its renewal rate over the last 12 weeks, its rent each week and what it took. Press a region's name to see only that region, or choose it from the list at the top of the page.
• Region costs and Region prims: what each region costs against its rent, and its prims. See below.
• Units: every unit, with its state, tenant, time left, price per week and the prims it allows. Units over their prim limit and running out come first. Type in Find a unit to look for a unit, region or tenant, or choose which units to Show.
• Rental boxes to update: once Civitas reads your CasperLet units, the boxes with an older CasperLet version than your newest one, so you know which to update in SL. It shows only when there are some.
• Tenants: everyone renting a unit or added to one by its tenant, with their units, when they moved in and how long they have left. A tenant who's a member of your community links to their member page.
• Rent paid: once Civitas reads your payments through CasperLet, each payment and refund, newest first, with its unit, who paid and CasperLet's description. Refunds show with a minus. Choose a Unit to see only its payments, and press Show more for older ones.
• Activity: CasperLet's Rental Log, newest first: new rentals, time added or taken away, refunds, locks and evictions, including ones done in SL. Time is how much was added or taken away, and Left is what the tenant had after it. Choose a Unit, or type part of a Tenant's name, to see only theirs.

What each state means

• Vacant: nobody rents it. A vacant unit reserved for someone says who it's for.
• Rented: someone rents it and has 3 days or more left.
• Running out soon: the tenant has less than 3 days left.
• Over the prim limit: the tenant has more prims out than the unit allows.

A unit locked in CasperLet has a Locked badge.

Region costs and prims

Region costs puts what each region costs a month beside what its rented units take:

• Type: the kind of region SL reports, from the region's Region Monitor: Full region, Full region with 30,000 prims, Skill Gaming, Homestead, OpenSpace or Mainland. A full region that allows more than 20,000 prims is taken as having Linden Lab's 30,000-prim upgrade.
• Cost a month: Linden Lab's private region price for the type: US$199 for a full region (US$209 with 30,000 prims), US$345 for Skill Gaming, US$109 for a Homestead and US$60 for OpenSpace. Mainland has no set price, so enter what you pay.
• The cost in L$ uses SL's LindeX exchange rate, which Civitas reads from SL once an hour. The panel says what the rate is and when SL last updated it. If SL can't be reached, the last rate read is used, and until Civitas has read one, costs show in US$ only.
• Rent a month: what the rented units take a month at their prices (a week's rent × 52 ÷ 12). Point at it to see what they've taken so far this month.
• After cost: the rent a month once the region is paid for.
• Breaks even at: how full the region needs to be for its rent to pay for it, when its units cost about the same. "Never at these prices" means even every unit rented doesn't cover it. Point at it to see what the region would take a month with every unit rented.
• Per 1,000 prims: the rent a month for each 1,000 prims the region allows.

With permission to manage rentals, press the pencil beside a region to choose its type, if SL's isn't right, or enter what it costs you, if your price is grandfathered or discounted. Leave the cost empty for Linden Lab's price. Changes save as you make them and are in the community's audit log.

Region prims shows each whole region's prims: how many it allows, how many are in use and how many are left, how many your units give their tenants (rented and vacant), and how many aren't in any unit. The Region Monitor counts them when it starts, once a day, and when you press Count prims now in the region's panel, so the page shows when they were last counted. A region needs a Region Monitor for its prims and type.

A unit's settings and past tenants

Press a unit's name in Units to open its panel. Once Civitas reads your CasperLet payments, it shows when the tenant last paid and how much, and what they've paid for it in all, less refunds.

Settings in CasperLet shows what the unit's pay buttons buy and cost, how long it can be rented for at a time, any least or most payment, bonus time and discounts, and what happens once a tenant's time runs out. Civitas reads each unit's settings through CasperLet once a day, so a change you make in CasperLet shows by the next day. You change them in CasperLet, never in Civitas.

Past tenants lists who rented it before, from when to when, what they paid (less refunds) once Civitas reads your CasperLet payments, and whether they were evicted. Once Civitas reads your CasperLet records it adds tenancies from before the Rental Connector heard from the unit. CasperLet gives only those tenants' names, so they aren't linked to anyone's account.

Tenants who are members also see their past rentals, and what they paid, on Your rentals, and people who can see the Rentals page see them on the tenant's profile.

Have a unit do something

With permission to manage rentals, press a unit's name in Units to open its panel. The Rental Connector in the unit's region tells the unit, as if its owner pressed the button in SL, so it only works while that region has a Rental Connector. The page shows the change once the unit reports it, usually within a minute.

• Lock or Unlock: a locked unit can't be rented or renewed until it's unlocked.
• Turn reminders on or off: CasperLet reminds the tenant before their time runs out, unless they turned that off. This turns it the other way for them, as if they pressed Reminders on the unit.
• Open the menu: gives the tenant, someone they added or you the unit's menu in SL, as if they touched it. They need to be near the unit.
• Evict: with permission to evict tenants, ends the tenancy now. CasperLet doesn't refund the time left, and it can't be undone.

Everything you do here is in the community's audit log. If Civitas can't reach the Rental Connector, for example just after the region restarted, it says so and nothing changes: try again in a minute.

Put tenants in an SL group

CasperLet can invite tenants to a group itself. Civitas can be the backup: with permission to manage rentals, press Tenant group at the top of the page and choose one of your SL groups and a role, or no role to invite tenants without one.

Until a tenant group is chosen, the Rentals page warns that new tenants aren't being added to an SL group. With permission to manage rentals, press Choose a tenant group on the warning to open the same panel. If CasperLet already invites your tenants, you can leave it as it is.

• When someone rents a unit, the group's bot invites them in the role, or gives them the role if they're in the group already. Each invitation counts toward the day's messages.
• When you evict a tenant from this page, the bot ejects them from the group once the unit goes vacant, unless they rent another of your units. Someone with another role in the group, like an officer, stays in it and only loses the tenant role. Tenants whose time runs out, or who leave, stay in the group, as CasperLet decides.
• Tenants renting when you choose the group who are in it get the role. Nobody already renting is invited, and neither is anyone banned from the group or the community.
• What CasperLet does to the group for its tenants (inviting them, giving them the role, and taking them out once their tenancy ends) isn't listed in Changes in SL.

The list has only roles Civitas can give out: the bot needs the abilities to invite and eject, and to give out the role, and you need the role's SL abilities in the group yourself. A role linked to a Civitas role can't be the tenant role, since every tenant would get that role on the website too. If Civitas can't put a tenant in the group, for example because the bot has lost an ability, the Rentals page says why until it next can. Choosing the group, and everything the bot does for it, is in the community's audit log.

Remind tenants to pay

Civitas can remind your tenants before their time runs out, so you can turn CasperLet's own reminders off. With permission to manage rentals, press Rent reminders at the top of the page, turn on Send rent reminders and tick when they go: a week, 3 days, 2 days, a day, 6 hours, 2 hours or an hour before, when it runs out, and each day it's overdue. They start off, with 3 days before, a day before, 6 hours before and when it runs out ticked.

• Each goes to the unit's tenant, not the people they added. A tenant with a Civitas account gets a notification, and chooses in their notification settings whether it also reaches them in SL or on Discord (SL is on until they change it). Everyone else gets an IM from your community's bot, with the unit's place so they can go and pay. Each IM counts toward the day's messages.
• It says how long is actually left, so if Civitas missed a time, for example while Rentals was paused, it sends only the latest one.
• A tenant who told CasperLet they won't renew gets none, as CasperLet sends them none either. Civitas sees it on the unit's settings through CasperLet, which it reads every few hours while a tenant's time is running out, and the Units list marks the unit Won't renew.
• When a tenant renews, the times start again from their new end. When they leave or you evict them, nothing more goes.
• "Each day it's overdue" stops after 7 days, or sooner when the rental box takes the unit back.
• Turning them on, or changing the times, never sends the times already past. Changes save as you make them and are in the community's audit log.

Have things happen when tenancies start and end

With permission to manage rentals, press Actions at the top of the page for four lists of actions that run for the tenant by themselves, like giving them a role or sending them an IM. Press Add an action in a list and choose one.

• When a tenancy starts runs when someone rents a vacant unit. Tenants who were renting when the Rental Connector first heard from their unit don't count, and neither does a renewal.
• When time is running out runs 3 days before a tenancy ends, or at once if someone rents for less. It runs once for each time the tenant pays: after they renew, it runs again 3 days before the new end.
• When a tenant leaves runs when a tenancy ends: their time ran out, they left, or you evicted them.
• When a tenant goes over their prims runs each time a tenant has more out than their unit allows, as CasperLet reports it. Once they're back under, it can run again the next time they go over.

Nothing runs twice for the same tenancy starting or ending, or for the same time running out. The actions run with the permissions of whoever changed them last, and what they send in SL counts toward a daily limit, which the community's owner can change. While Rentals is off or paused, nothing runs, and time running out waits until Rentals is back on.

Whenever a tenant goes over their prims, everyone with permission to manage rentals also gets a notification, and the unit shows in red on the page and orange on the map.